


The Unyielding Moon

by seamirror



Category: TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fluff, M/M, Slow Burn, animals galore, fairytale, real life logic is often ignored
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-01-31 07:36:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21442573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seamirror/pseuds/seamirror
Summary: Yeonjun sprinkles plants with dewdrops before dawn. Soobin hangs up the stars on the night sky and takes them away in the morning. Inevitably, they meet.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 31
Kudos: 160





	1. Mrs Sheep

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, Maria, for putting up with my absurd ideas and giving me feedback. May Mrs Sheep give you the sweetest dreams.

Yeonjun knocked once, twice, on the wooden door. The jar of honey in his arms almost slipped off while he briefly detached his fingers from it to announce his arrival. It would have been a mess—almost thirty kilograms of honey, wasted right at the entrance, after his titanic effort of carrying the huge vessel for 20 minutes to the destination. How do you even clean a puddle of honey? Actually, there was a more puzzling matter—what would one need so much honey in one go for?

Maybe he decided to ask about it, but then the door opened and the thought flew away when he had to take a few steps back to protect the enormous jar. Doors shouldn't ever open outwards.

"Delivery for... Sir Peppermint?"

The boy at the door sighed. "That's my father. And you know it."

"I do?"

"Told you the last time we met. And the first. And you forget every single time. But, well. I don't mind. I like the sound of it—Sir."

Yeonjun's proverbial light-bulb lit up. "You're Taehyun, right?"

Taehyun smiled politely. "Yes, thank you. Come on in."

"I shouldn't, really—"

"Come on in. For a few minutes. Let me help you."

The jar of honey was inside now and it was even taller than the tables scattered throughout the room. They were unoccupied, save for two animals sipping at their cups of tea. A pleasant smell dominated the air, aromatic herbs blended with the specific wood odour from the large tree which provided the hollow for Taehyun's teahouse.

Yeonjun was sitting on a barstool while Taehyun was brewing his tea. Lavender and mint—not something Yeonjun had ever tried before, but he decided to accept a recommendation from Taehyun for once. He was pretty sure he had been single-handedly depleting Taehyun's thyme supply, Yeonjun's favourite.

"Slow business today?"

"Not necessarily. Well, many animals used to come for strawberries but now it's past their time. They only visit when they truly need something, anyway." Taehyun sprinkled something Yeonjun didn't recognise over the plants in the boiling water. Secret ingredient, he supposed. "They make do with very little, unlike us."

Yeonjun nodded and took a decorative basil leaf between his fingers. "But you still find ways to keep yourself busy, right?"

"I do. Just like you. Speaking of which, how many deliveries have you made today?"

Yeonjun narrowed his eyes in thought. "This must be the fourth one. Two early in the morning, one around noon, and now your honey. I've only got one left." He readjusted his position in the seat. "What's the deal with that, anyway?"

"You're asking about the honey?" Yeonjun confirmed, and Taehyun continued: "Well, I thought I should try out some cookie recipes and see what the animals like. I know for a fact that Mr Badger loves sweets, and he is the very picky type. Figured that if he is into something, then most animals might be."

After the infusion was prepared, Taehyun invited Yeonjun to sit with him at a table, right next to Mrs Sheep.

"Okay, so," Taehyun started, "thanks a lot for carrying the honey jar to me."

"So many bees suffered for that honey, Taehyun."

"Don't pity the bees, Yeonjun. It’s what they're born to do. Plus, Mr Honey Bear takes good care of them."

"He does," Yeonjun reckoned, taking a sip of tea.

"Right. So, um..." Taehyun averted his eyes for a moment. "I really shouldn't, and I feel bad for it, but I've got one more thing to ask you to do."

Yeonjun smiled. "Why feel bad? That's my job. Side job, I suppose, but I did sign up for it. Ask away."

Taehyun seemed to loosen up a little. "Alright, then. Well... Mrs Sheep here—"

"Amazing tea, by the way."

"Thank you," Taehyun said, the tiniest hint of red colouring his cheeks, "so, Mrs Sheep." He gently stroked her wool while she was drinking her own tea—chamomile, by the looks of it. "She has to jump over the moon tonight, and I still haven't found anyone who can help her with it."

Yeonjun stopped mid-sip. "She has to what?"

"Jump over the moon," Taehyun repeated, as if he was reading to a kindergartner. "She does this once a season, at night, so that she'll start appearing behind recently-born children's eyes once they close them and they'll be able to fall asleep more easily. As children age, they see Mrs Sheep jumping more times, once for each season they've been alive in, thus learning how to count. Didn't your mother ever tell you this when you were a kid?"

Yeonjun thought for a moment. "No, actually. Mommy used to read me bedtime stories. That's how I used to fall asleep."

"That… works too, I guess."

Yeonjun's brow creased, the weight of the task slowly dawning upon him. "What you're saying is, you want me to go... to the moon?!"

"It's not that hard to reach, let me explain." Taehyun kept petting Mrs Sheep, who had closed her eyes at some point, dozing off. "There's this guy I know, an inventor who lives in the Golden Meadow. He built a rocket a while ago and he was supposed to carry Mrs Sheep himself, but he's feeling quite sick at the moment."

"Is it something serious?" Yeonjun asked, concerned.

"No, no, don't worry, but it's bad enough for him not to be able to do this anymore. I'll send you to him with some medicinal tea I've been working at, you'll tell him about Mrs Sheep, and he'll lend you the rocket right away. I heard it's not difficult to pilot."

That didn't make things a lot easier for Yeonjun.

"Is that okay? I mean, again, I don't want to burden you with another task but I've got no one to turn to right now and—"

"Yeah, sure," Yeonjun said, after not a great amount of careful deliberation. "I'll manage. For the children."

Taehyun seemed immensely relieved. "Thank you, _thank you_."

Mrs Sheep let out a small "baa", which Yeonjun thought was just her snoring, but Taehyun informed him that she thanked him too. Quite often lately, Yeonjun regretted not being able to understand animals.

"When exactly should I go with her? Is there a set moment, like midnight?"

"Not really. As long as it's before daybreak, I think it should be fine. It's not me who invented the moon-jumping, though." He paused. "You could go right before sprinkling dew."

Yeonjun took a big gulp of his tea to empty the cup and placed it on its plate with a loud _clink_. There _was_ a secret ingredient, and it made the tea one hundred times better than he had expected.

"Sounds like a plan."

"Perfect," Taehyun said. "I'll make you thyme tea every morning for this."

"Nah. Just send me a batch of cookies once you figure out a recipe."

***

Like many times before that day, Yeonjun found himself in front of a door, not as a guest, but on duty. He could've spent all day taking in the vista: the Golden Meadow was a paradise for summer flowers of all colours, a shallow valley which must have had a wide river coursing through hundreds of thousands of years ago, but slowly exchanged water for air and greenery. There were some old oaks which were perfect for sleeping in, or serving as lookout spots. Yeonjun knew very well, for he often visited the place early in the morning to coat the vegetation in his dew drops.

He knocked. Only once, because the piano that was being played inside stopped instantly and steps could be heard on the creaking floor. The owner fiddled with the lock for a few moments, then opened the door (on the inside, this time) to reveal himself: a boy, slightly taller than Yeonjun, who, true to description, looked very pale and weakened.

"Hi. My name is Yeonjun. Sir Pe—Taehyun sent me to you with some tea and a request."

"Taehyun?" He eyed Yeonjun's bag. "Sure, come in. But I don't want to keep you here for too long. You could do without my viruses."

His name was Kai and his house in the middle of the meadow was a tiny mess of countless machines and structures and drafts. At the centre of it all, there was the piano from earlier.

"Sometimes I play myself a few lullabies before going to sleep," Kai explained. "I can rest easier this way."

Yeonjun regarded the piano appreciatively. "So you don't count sheep for this?"

Kai laughed. A raspy, cold-thickened laugh. "I used to, up until I was... twelve?" He pulled Yeonjun a chair. "But there's a point in your life when you stop seeing Mrs Sheep, and when your dreams stop being colourful and vivid. That might be the point when your childhood ends."

"Does it?" Yeonjun mused and sat down. "I think it lasts as long as you want it to."

"It does," Kai said. "But you can't keep all of it in your heart as you age. Some fragments fall off and you don't come back for them." He opened a drawer and picked up a wrench.

"This also applies to the stuff you build, right?"

"Pretty much. A machine only needs what is necessary for it to function. Give it too many components and it'll be harder to make it operate the way you want it to. But humans aren't machines, are they?" He sniffed and let out a cough. "Man, all this talking isn't good for my throat."

He entered an adjacent chamber and came back a few minutes later, pushing a tiny rocket on a cart. It was tiny compared to Yeonjun's mental image, at least, but it occupied about the same space in the living room as Kai's grand piano.

"I'll open the big door and we'll take this outside. I'll show you how to manoeuvre it."

Yeonjun was soon seated in the rocket, which was reclining on a wooden ramp, slightly tilted, its shiny red tip pointing towards the sky. He was gripping the steering wheel, toying with it.

"First of all, there's enough fuel for three two-way trips to the moon, so all you have to do is keep the engine running."

"Yep."

"You pull the steering wheel and it will go up, and then—_achoo_!" Kai wiped his nose with a sleeve. "Sorry."

"No problem."

"And then you can go in any direction, except backwards. You'll have to turn left all the way or right all the way for that. If you want to descend, there's that lever over there, to your right, do you see it?"

"Yes. This one?" He tapped a tiny lever above his right knee.

"That one. There's a safety mechanism attached to it so you won't plunge down."

"Good."

"And these are the safety belts," Kai said, gesturing at Yeonjun's seat and the one next to it, "for you and for Mrs Sheep. Do keep them fastened, especially you."

"Why especially me?"

"Mrs Sheep has some anti-gravity powers, I don't know the details, but she wouldn't be able to jump over the moon without them. It's obvious."

"Of course." Yeonjun felt slightly more out of it with each new piece of information.

"And at your feet you've got some pedals. They only work for horizontal travelling, so they won't help you climb or descend faster."

Yeonjun nodded and reassessed the controls. Not that difficult to manoeuvre, just like Taehyun had mentioned.

"This is impressive," he told Kai. "I still can't believe something like this exists. You built it all by yourself?"

Kai rubbed the side of the rocket, as if to scrub off some imaginary dirt. "Well, it took me about a year, planning included. Months of prototypes, re-constructions, and failed take-offs, but I'm glad it all worked out in the end. Thank you."

Yeonjun smiled at him, and Kai tried to replicate it, but he was both too ill and too self-conscious to do it properly.

"I gotta thank you for your help with Mrs Sheep, too. I bet Taehyun felt like the weight of the world fell off his shoulders."

"He seems very attached to Mrs Sheep," Yeonjun said, testing out the pedals.

"Oh, definitely. He's very attached to all animals." The next second, Kai climbed inside the rocket, bad health momentarily ignored. "Okay, let's do a test flight. Don't be too nervous, I'm right here. I'll help in an instant."

Yeonjun fastened his seatbelt and grabbed the steering wheel with determination. "Oh, buddy. I feel like I've been waiting for this my whole life."

***

Yeonjun met up with Mrs Sheep deep in the night in the Golden Meadow, at a considerable distance from Kai's house so as to not disturb his sleep. The night air was warm, the sky clear. Nothing to impede their journey.

He helped Mrs Sheep climb into the passenger seat, then claimed his own spot in front of the steering wheel.

"The safety belts," he remembered, and proceeded to plug both of them in.

When he was certain nothing was omitted, Yeonjun turned the vehicle on just as Kai had taught him and rose from the ground, the grass blades gently swayed by the movement. After they passed the tallest trees around by a good few meters, he pressed the accelerator pedal while pulling the wheel and the rocket shot towards the distant sky. Mrs Sheep baaed loudly, but Yeonjun couldn't figure if it was out of excitement or fear. He could only hope she wasn't feeling too uncomfortable. As for himself, he was laughing heartily, the air sweeping past the rocket making his eyes water.

The earth below eventually slipped out of sight, the dark horizon submerging into a murky mass of deep blue. There was only the sky, and there were stars beaconing shyly from the vast unknown. Among them, the pole of familiarity, and Yeonjun started noticing, with more clarity than ever, small indentations as well as variously-shaped craters in its milky white surface. The moon.

And dangling from it like an earring, a dark, elongated silhouette, something impossible to notice from afar but hard to miss when you're so close to the moon you can almost breathe in its dust.

Yeonjun stopped the rocket right in its vicinity, at what he hoped was the right distance for Mrs Sheep to make her jump. She had been awfully quiet the whole journey, but he supposed sheep are meek and silent like that.

He undid her seat belt, and Mrs Sheep carefully climbed onto the head of the rocket. That was when Yeonjun got a better glimpse of the object hanging from the moon disk—or rather, the person. _What_ were they even doing there?

"Sorry. Am I in your way?"

Yeonjun craned his neck to get a full view of the source of that deep voice. It was a young man, tall and lean and hair full of moon dust, hands grabbing the edge of the celestial body.

"No, I think," Yeonjun answered. "Are we in your way? Do you need help?"

"Probably not. But I don't know what you've come all the way here for. And I'm good, thanks."

"Mrs Sheep right here has to jump over the moon," Yeonjun said, pointing a finger to her. He wasn't sure if it was worth explaining further. Taehyun had made it sound like the entire world except Yeonjun knew about Mrs Sheep's duty.

"Oh?" The boy turned his head to look at him, then at Mrs Sheep. He didn't seem to pay attention to the rocket, even though it was evidently the most unnatural object between the five present. "Er, of course! Don't mind me."

Yeonjun put his hands back on the steering wheel and waited for Mrs Sheep to make her move. She wiggled her bottom a few times, like cats do before they pounce, and jumped with the agility of a horse. Yeonjun drove the rocket the instant her feet left its surface, bringing it on the other side of the moon, closer to the hanging boy. He waited for her to land.

But Mrs Sheep was floating through space at a laughably small speed, following the circumference of the moon like the minute hand on a clock dial. Was it the lack of gravity? Magic? Some physics laws that get distorted in space? Yeonjun resolved not to give it too much thought and stay put. She was going to finish the jump right where she started it; not too soon, but safely.

After a minute or two of contemplation, he shifted his attention to the boy beside him, still clinging with stubbornness to the very moon Mrs Sheep was flying above. What if he fell? Yeonjun would have dived after him immediately, of course. But Kai had pointed out that the spaceship couldn't go down too fast, so he could've tried anything in his power to save him and still end up failing. What would his safety net have been if Yeonjun hadn't, by an outstanding luck, happened to pass by?

What was he doing there all by himself?

Yeonjun decided the last part was okay to verbalise.

"I'm trying to get the moon down from here."

Predictably, that left Yeonjun completely in the dark. The boy elaborated.

"Well... my task is to hang up the stars in the sky when it gets dark and sweep them away when the sun rises. Stars are tiny and easy to detach and reattach. But I've never managed to peel off the moon. It just... It's stuck up here. It won't budge. So I've spent all night hanging from it and waiting for gravity to do its job."

Yeonjun hummed, chin propped on the heel of his hand. It made perfect sense and no sense whatsoever at the same time. But he admired the guy's moxie.

"Isn't the moon supposed to stay up here?" Yeonjun asked. "I often see it in broad daylight."

"That's exactly because I can't take it off the sky," the boy said, visibly disappointed by his shortcomings. "The sun shines so bright you often can't see it, but it's always here. Even though it's not supposed to be. The moon belongs to the night, just like the sun belongs to the day. Oh! I just felt something." His voice gained a newfound excitement. "I think it started coming off. Do you see it?"

Yeonjun bent over a few degrees, then more, trusting his safety belt, and examined the edge of the disk. He squinted, angled his head, but he couldn't see any irregularity.

"Oh. I guess I'm starting to imagine things now," the boy said, with an empty laugh.

He had no reason to, but Yeonjun began feeling guilty. He searched his mind for something to move the conversation forward with.

"Is it also you who puts the sun on the sky? That one's a star too, I mean." Right? Yeonjun didn't want to seem too clueless in front of someone who was astronomy itself.

"No, it's not me." The boy used a hand to brush away some hair strands that started stinging his eyelids. He was hanging off the moon with one arm just as effortlessly as with two. "I don't know if there's someone who does it or if the sun simply moves out of its own will. I can only walk the sky at night."

Yeonjun nodded in understanding. "Sounds familiar," he said. "I can only fly early in the morning, and not too far from the plants I have to sprinkle dew on." A pause. "And definitely not in a rocket. This one is borrowed."

The boy blinked, much like a curious infant. "So you're the one who carries dew? That's cute."

Yeonjun wasn't sure whether he was genuinely being nice or meant it in the _You sprinkle dew? That's cute. I can walk on the sky and glue stars on it and also hang off the moon as if it were a tree branch_ way. He accepted the compliment nevertheless.

"Does that mean you've got nothing left to do the rest of the day?"

"I could ask the same about you," Yeonjun remarked.

"True, but I said it first."

"Well. Most of the time I do deliveries for people and animals nearby." Yeonjun tried looking the boy in the eyes while talking, but since he was facing the moon and his outstretched arms were barricading his profile, it was hard to see much. He continued. "Food. Utensils. Decorations. Even had to bring two cubs from the kindergarten once."

"You sound very reliable."

"I sure hope I am."

"You gotta be. You've been trusted with both Mrs Sheep and an actual rocket."

Yeonjun thought it over for a bit. The boy might have had a point, and it made his heart swell.

"I don't do much in comparison," the boy said eventually. "I've got a vegetable garden behind my house, but I find it hard to take care of it in the sweltering heat we've been having." He sounded truly upset about it.

"I know," Yeonjun said, and he really did. There had been more and more days when the temperature didn't drop low enough for him to be able to sprinkle the dew drops. "But at least it's nice and cool up here. What I wouldn't do to let out steam every night among the st—WOAH."

Mrs Sheep's hooves hit the metal of the rocket with a solid _clunk_. Yeonjun was relieved to see her back in one piece, but also startled by her lightning strike appearance.

"Mission complete!" the boy observed. "Congrats. Children will sleep well."

"Keep that for after we make it back on the ground." Yeonjun stared into space for one second. "If we happen to meet again, that is."

"Even if we don't," the boy said, head thrown back so he could make eye contact with Yeonjun, "thanks for keeping me company."

"Yeah, right back at you." Yeonjun felt a surge of warmth all of a sudden, for an indiscernible reason. Possibly the approaching of dawn. "Are you sure you'll be okay out here?"

"Don't worry about me."

Frankly, Yeonjun wasn't going to, but it wasn't often that he saw a guy hanging from the moon like a fish on a hook, waiting for it to peel off. He couldn't help being a little concerned.

"Whatever you say." He fastened Mrs Sheep's seat belt, fingers fumbling with it for a few long moments due to her large cloak of wool, and gripped the descending lever. "Good luck. Have a nice day!"

The boy wished him the same, and then Yeonjun was gone, as quickly as the stars in the morning light. The moon was shrinking behind them, hiding its craters and indentations in the obscurity of distance.

"We didn't even introduce ourselves," Yeonjun said, half to himself, half to Mrs Sheep, who wasn't going to talk anyway. "How could I meet the man who decorates the night sky and not even ask him his name?"

***

With Mrs Sheep back home, the rocket in Kai's front yard, unscathed, and the first rays of sunlight emerging like a new-born's cooing, Yeonjun grabbed his basket of dew and set out to finish his job in the blink of an eye.

Not in the metaphorical sense. He always managed to complete the task faster than the eye can see.

He dipped his hand in the water, raised it over leaves, buds, petals, and stems, and released countless droplets of pure liquid by opening and closing his fist at a blinding speed, all sticking to the greenery like tiny beads of crystal. He immediately skipped to the next patch, and then to the other, covering entire meadows and glades without being noticed by a soul. When he finished, he hung the basket by a twig in his favourite oak and lay down on a hefty branch to take a quick nap.

That day, he felt it sharper than he had since summer started. It tickled his nostrils shortly after he closed his eyes. The telling dry breeze that preceded a heatwave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Second part coming very, very soon 🐰
> 
> Later edit: I just noticed that I wrote "steering wheel" as "stirring wheel" not once, not twice, but three times. And I re-read this text dozens of times without noticing anything wrong. I feel excruciatingly dumb


	2. Mr Rabbit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the nice words! They pushed me forward to finish this half - which, against my expectations, ended up being more than twice as long as the first one hah,,

The same morning, he stopped by Taehyun's for a cup of tea—inadvertently, since it was Taehyun who kicked open the door to his cafe when Yeonjun happened to pass by, a bowl of dough in one hand and its afferent whisk in the other, and yelled an invitation at him because he had just prepared "the best thyme tea in [his] life". Yeonjun had a million reasons to accept and none to decline, so he stayed.

Taehyun told him about his sleepless nights, which he attributed to the full moon, gossip about the animals (there were four seated at the tables while they were chatting: Mrs Cow, who Taehyun thought was avoiding her husband, Mr Rabbit, Mrs Turtle, and someone who rarely visited, Mr Owl. He was deep in thought, hunched over a cup of orange and cinnamon tea), and how the cornfield his father had planted was growing up nicely. Yeonjun told him about the trip to the moon and the odd guy he found there. Taehyun asked him if he was certain he wasn't an illusion, or an alien, but Yeonjun insisted he was a real human, flesh and bones, Mr Owl's paranoia is rubbing off on you, Taehyun, shut up, Yeonjun, he's got a highly developed sense of hearing.

The time flew by and Yeonjun was going to be late for his first delivery of the day, which had never happened. Fourth maybe, sometimes third, but never this early in the day. So he picked up the basket he had left on Taehyun's counter and asked Mr Rabbit if he could carry him to his destination. He was met with silence, but Taehyun promptly translated for him: YES. GO. So Yeonjun climbed on his back and the pair hopped away. Mrs Turtle seemed a bit disappointed that Yeonjun hadn't chosen her as a travel buddy.

The house in question was quite far away, hailing from beyond the chain of hills that enclosed the Four Meadows. Yeonjun had a vague idea about which path they should take, but Mr Rabbit didn't listen to his suggestions, instead silently choosing an itinerary that was much shorter than what Yeonjun was planning. He had underestimated Mr Rabbit's wanderlust. The basket was being shaken relentlessly by Mr Rabbit's hops, and Yeonjun thanked all the divine forces that cooperated to inspire him to wrap the contents in a blanket. A pink blanket from his mother that he used to cover himself when the night air became too cold.

Within ten minutes, they were right outside their destination, a modest house in the middle of a clearing that was bordered by tall firs. It looked as though the trees were guarding it, ready to unroot themselves and shoo away any intruder. Yeonjun didn't seriously think he was under their scrutiny, but you never know in these parts.

Mr Rabbit scooted close enough to the door so that Yeonjun could rap his knuckles on it while still hanging on his furry back. He waited. When no one came, he knocked again and said, half-shouted, "Delivery for... Mr Soobin!"

That seemed to do the job, because the owner unlocked the door in an instant, as if he had been summoned. He opened it halfway and Yeonjun's eyes widened comically when he realised who the figure in front of him was. Not an illusion, nor an alien.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Hi." Yeonjun mentally kicked himself. "I mean, so—this is your name. Didn't expect to find out so soon."

"Me neither," Soobin, the man at the door, purveyor of stars by night, said, looking oddly uneasy. "I still don't know yours, though."

"Yeonjun," the deliverer presented himself, extending a hand through Mr Rabbit's vertical ears. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Soobin said and shook his hand, because they definitely hadn't met several hours ago a few kilometres above the altitude they were at right now.

Yeonjun raised the basket. "This is what you ordered, right? Eggs. Eighteen, to be precise. I wrapped them tightly in my favourite blanket so they won't break," he said with pride.

Soobin smiled, and his cheeks dimpled. That, Yeonjun wasn't ready for. "Thank you, I honestly appreciate it." He took the basket from Yeonjun's hand. "But these are chocolate eggs. It's more likely for them to melt than break."

A fuse blew inside Yeonjun's brain. It was the second one he lost in one minute. "Oh, man."

"But it's okay!" Soobin assured him. He lifted the pink material to reveal a perfectly-preserved cluster of rainbow eggs. It looked like the nest of the premier diva in the bird world. "They look perfect," Soobin concluded, and placed the basket on the floor. "So, uh... would you like to come inside? Our conversation last night… ended kind of abruptly. Um, if you want to keep talking, of course."

Soobin seemed to consider backpedalling more and more with each word he spoke, so Yeonjun was disappointed that he had to turn him down.

"I'm really sorry," he said, looking down at Mr Rabbit's large feet, "I offered Mr Rabbit a bucket of apples to carry me to you then back home. I've got a few more deliveries to make and I don't have a lot of time..." He looked up and oh no. Soobin was upset. Yeonjun could tell from the total absence of dimples. He had made him sad. What to do what to say—

"Don't worry," Soobin said, a smile returning on his face. "We've got plenty of time, right? I'm here pretty much all day except for when I'm on sky duty and—yes, Mr Rabbit, I love you too."

Mr Rabbit took Soobin into his arms and the boy hugged him back, albeit awkwardly, because there wasn't much space on his fur that wasn't covered by Yeonjun's body. He dropped his arms after a few moments in which he felt Yeonjun's discomfort of being the world's most intrusive third wheel breathing down his neck, but Mr Rabbit was still hugging him. And now, he was lifting him off the ground.

"You want me to...?"

He was now at Yeonjun's eye level.

"Sorry," Soobin said, and wrapped his arms around Mr Rabbit's neck, trying to incommode Yeonjun as little as possible. Mr Rabbit then released him and now both boys were hanging from his neck, Yeonjun on the back, Soobin on the front, heads on either side of Mr Rabbit's. The animal turned around in a swift motion and hopped away from Soobin's house, down the same path he and Yeonjun had followed earlier. Soobin could see his house become gradually smaller, door open, basket of eggs right at the entrance. With a bit of luck, no squirrels were going to sneak in and wreak havoc. Or worse, eat his chocolate eggs.

Soobin was bouncing more than Yeonjun, obviously the more inexperienced between the two of them in rabbit-riding. He thought of bending his knees and wrapping his legs around his torso—Mr Rabbit had a voluminous body. Would that be irreverent towards him? Soobin hoped he didn't mind, because he had no better idea. He made a few attempts, failed, due to Mr Rabbit's fur being impractically smooth, but eventually succeeded, the soles of his shoes ending up mere centimetres away from Yeonjun's legs. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't dirty his clothes by mistake.

"Looks like we have no choice _but_ to spend time together now," Yeonjun pointed out.

Soobin laughed. "I wouldn't have done much back home, to be fair. Maybe just check on the tomatoes to see if they still plan on growing."

"Not getting along with the plants, huh?"

"It's not like I can help them with everything. There's only so much a rookie gardener like me can do."

Yeonjun hummed. "What about the experienced star-bearer?"

"Who?" Soobin was genuinely confused for a moment, but then it hit him. "Oh... Have you seen the moon today?"

"No?"

"It's still there."

"I was preparing for some good news."

Soobin sighed. "It's no use. I've still got a few things I need to try, but there are a lot that I already have. I'm starting to think it's beyond my power to remove it."

Yeonjun slipped his elbow further under Soobin's, in a gesture he hoped conveyed reassurance and relaxation. "Maybe it's not your job to do that. For what it's worth, I think the moon looks perfect up there, be it day or night."

"It just doesn't sit right with me. I keep feeling there's something I'm getting wrong."

"Who knows. You can keep trying, though. You might get the answers you need. Or don't."

Soobin watched Yeonjun's back bounce lightly off Mr Rabbit's fur. It was all he could see of him without stretching too much. He had an odd feeling: he wished to see Yeonjun's eyes, to hang onto the warmth they emanated, even though he had only seen them through tiny glimpses, bordered by the white of the moon and his own arm, or Mr Rabbit's ears. But it looked as though he was holding some missing pieces of a puzzle that Soobin didn't even know he possessed.

***

Now that Soobin was, against his will, on his "territory", Yeonjun thought it would be appropriate to show him around, do something fun, be a good host.

However, that wasn't possible. He could at most take him on his next delivery trip, and maybe the one after that if he didn't bail out. So that was what Yeonjun did: brought Soobin to a mighty log in the middle of the forest.

"This one is for Mr Beaver," Yeonjun said, raising a leg and placing his foot on the bark.

Soobin didn't get it. "What for?"

"He's building a dam, Soobin. He needs wood."

"What?"

"Have you ever seen a beaver?"

"No, I haven't." Soobin seemed to wait for his memory to throw a clue at him, without success. "I only know them from books."

"And didn't they ever write about—never mind, help me lift this thing and you'll see with your own eyes."

_Alley-oop_, and the log was up in the air, Yeonjun and Soobin holding an end each. They were heading towards a river; Soobin wasn't sure which one, he didn't even remember if there were rivers running in the area, so he wordlessly followed Yeonjun's lead. The sun was scorching above them, but the feeling of tree bark touching his sweaty neck was unpleasant enough to knock off the strong light from the first spot on Top Most Bothersome Things To Soobin In That Moment. He was struggling to keep the log as far away from his head as possible, looking like a baby woodpecker who was being force-fed by his mother. Yeonjun didn't seem to go through such hardships.

"Were you going to carry the wood all by yourself if I hadn't been here?" Soobin called.

"Of course." Yeonjun didn't hesitate.

"You're stronger than you seem, then. I wouldn't have expected this from Dew Boy."

"Or maybe you're just weak."

That silenced Soobin. "I'm not weak," he uttered. The worst part was that he wasn't certain of it. He never did heavy lifting or demanding tasks, which seemed to be a quotidian matter for Yeonjun.

"I know," he heard the other boy reply after a prolonged quietness.

***

The river was crystal and satin, speckled with golden light drops like a leopard's coat. The light reflected stung Soobin's eyes—they were far better suited for darkness and shadows, and he didn't mind the shimmering starlight, but there was a reason why he worked in the obscurity of the night and not in broad sunlight. It was too _much_.

He didn't tell Yeonjun though; he helped him carry the log through the tall grass of the river bank and near the water, where Mr Beaver's barrage started and circled smoothly towards the opposite side, enclosing a deep blue pond.

"Alright, we don't know what might lurk on the bottom, so I say we keep our shoes on," Yeonjun proposed.

"You mean... We'll go into the water?"

Yeonjun blinked and the corners of his mouth perked up. It was frustrating; Soobin could tell he was looking dumber and dumber to him with each passing minute. "We can't just drop the log on the ground," Yeonjun explained, "it would be bad manners. You think you can't do it?"

"If you do nothing, there's nothing you can do wrong."

"There _is_ nothing you can do wrong," Yeonjun said, smiling wider now. "You can just stay here if you want to. But it's much cooler in the water. In both senses, I guess."

In the end, Soobin walked into the water. It was indeed a welcome cooling down. They navigated with a bit of difficulty, but after a dozen or so careful steps, they reached the door to Mr Beaver's tiny house made out of branches.

"Delivery for Mr Beaver!" Yeonjun announced brightly.

The door opened as if on cue and Mr Beaver peeked outside, whiskers quivering as he studied the log that extended from Yeonjun's shoulder to Soobin's.

"Is it good?"

Mr Beaver blinked and motioned towards the pond.

"Uh..."

"He told us to leave it by the edge of the dam right there," Soobin said, jerking his head in the direction he was describing.

Yeonjun pursed his lips. He really should have paid more attention in animal language classes.

It was Soobin who led the way now, which was noticeable: his uncertainty, or maybe excessive prudence, made them advance slowly. But they made it to the juxtaposition between the barrage and the bank, both humans and wood intact.

Almost.

On the very last step, Soobin slipped on a rock and by all means he should have fallen face first into the water; he would've dragged the log down with him too. But Yeonjun held it in place with an impressive reflex, and Soobin ended up simply hanging from the trunk, knees bent as if he was doing a squat rotated by 90 degrees.

"Your trousers are wet now," Yeonjun observed.

Soobin helped put down the log and did not comment on the matter.

"Do you know what's the best thing to do when your clothes are wet?" he later asked Yeonjun, when they were on their way out.

"Given today's weather... just stay outside?"

Instead of replying, Soobin swiftly dipped his arms into the river and sloshed a large amount of water at Yeonjun, who was now dripping from head to—well, calf, since the rest was submerged. His mouth fell open.

"Make them soaking wet," smiled Soobin.

"My clothes weren't even wet!"

"When I said 'your clothes', it was a general 'your'."

Naturally, they descended into a short, but fierce splashing war which lasted until they were back on the river bank. Yeonjun had the final word, being the last one in the water, and hurled a robust wave at Soobin before collapsing onto the grass, breathing hard.

"Gutsy of you," he heaved, "to challenge someone whose duty is to splash water every day."

Soobin snickered, coughed out some water that had gotten in his throat and lay down next to Yeonjun. "You're saying that as if you summon storms and produce tsunami."

"My grandpa could," Yeonjun said. "Thinking about it, I'm not continuing the tradition with much fanfare."

"That's not a bad thing." Soobin propped himself up on one elbow when a locust jumped on his hair. "I've always appreciated small things more. Everything has its place in the universe, small or big. And everything big is made up of many small pieces, so they're all significant."

"Didn't you just say it would have impressed you more if I could summon storms?"

Soobin laughed and looked into Yeonjun's eyes. There it was, the warmth he had been looking for. "You can't summon storms and I can't move the moon. No one is almighty."

"Yeah," Yeonjun concurred. "And to be honest, I wouldn't change this for anything."

***

They went to a creek Yeonjun knew to wash away the river detritus and hang their clothes under the sun to dry and at some point Soobin started feeling faint and nauseous. He kept brushing it off, telling Yeonjun it was nothing unusual, and Yeonjun believed him—until he put a palm to his forehead and felt burning skin. He ushered Soobin out of the water and gathered their clothes from the branch he had laid them on.

"Might be heat exhaustion," Yeonjun pondered. "It's dangerous to stay in the sunlight at noon for so long but I didn't really take care, did I?"

"Don't worry," Soobin said from the boulder he was sitting on and caught the bundle of clothes Yeonjun threw at him. "This is what I get for staying inside two thirds of the day."

Yeonjun was buckling his trousers. "I know someone who might help. Would you come with me? It's the least I can do to make up for everything."

Soobin considered for a moment, eyes slightly unfocused, and nodded nimbly. His cheeks were redder than the last time.

Yeonjun puffed, eyebrows drawn in thought. "Okay." Against Soobin's weak protests, he wrapped his still-damp shirt around his head and hoisted him on his back. He made sure his shoes were on and started walking towards the tallest tree in the Purple Plateau, sun still blazing above them.

***

"Are you there, Taehyun?" Yeonjun called after he knocked three times and received no answer. He started thinking Taehyun might have closed the cafe early right when he needed him the most. He didn't even know where Taehyun's house was, or if he actually lived somewhere else. Yeonjun had always assumed he slept on the counter, apron still on, and woke up with the sun, energised and ready to work like an ant—if that. Weren't there nocturnal animals too? Did he keep the door open for them?

"I think you can put me down now," Soobin mumbled. "I'm taller than you. Don't wanna break your spine."

"Shush. Rest."

Yeonjun heard a familiar tip-tap on wood approaching and took one big step back. The door opened.

"Taehyun! Thank goodness. This is Soobin, the strange guy I've told you about. He's not feeling well. Can you give him something?"

Taehyun's big eyes were even bigger than usual in that moment. It wasn't hard to read into them that the two visitors were as inconvenient as they were unexpected. "So he's real," he said, like there was a unicorn in front of him.

"I am," Soobin confirmed.

"Okay, we can debate it further inside." He held the door wide open. "But there's a small issue."

***

Mrs Cow was in labour. Taehyun had been lucky enough to have her go into labour right inside his cafe, two weeks before the expected date, when there was no one around. He had helped her onto a bed of blankets and towels, her glass of cranberry juice on the table forgotten, and prayed that his hypothetical deeply-hidden midwife skills would surface as soon as possible.

"I helped a boar give birth once. I'll try and help her too. Can you take care of Soobin in the meantime? He had a little too much sun today," Yeonjun said and it was music to Taehyun's ears. YES. Anything but taking responsibility for an actual birth.

There weren't many comfortable surfaces inside the cafe, so Taehyun pulled a timeworn armchair in which Old Mr Gander used to sit from the corner of the room and reclined it so that Soobin could lie down. Soobin told him that he didn't want to be treated as if he was dying, but a headache kept pulsating uncomfortably inside his skull, so he caved in and went to rest. Taehyun pointed out that fainting in an armchair is less troublesome than fainting while standing up.

"Keep breathing," Yeonjun whispered to Mrs Cow. "You'll do good."

Taehyun took a dishtowel and searched the shelves for a flask of light-coloured tea, which he used to dampen the material. He then carefully placed it on Soobin's forehead, making him startle.

"Keep it there," Taehyun said. "It'll take away the fever like it's magic."

Soobin hummed, pressing the edges of the compress to its temples.

"Have some of this too." Taehyun offered him a bowl of candied ginger root. "Should help if you feel like vomiting."

The room felt silent afterwards. Taehyun sat idly at a table, sometimes looking either at Yeonjun kneeling next to Mrs Cow, whose uneven breaths could easily be heard in the quiet, or at Soobin napping in the armchair. He fanned himself with a coaster. By some phenomenon he couldn't understand, the tree hollow rarely became too hot, even in the summer heat. It was part of the reason he liked working there: it felt like an alternate world encapsulated inside the real one, a cool, pleasant-smelling refuge for both him and the animals who were looking for his services. Or maybe he just hated sunlight an unfair amount. He stood up to check Soobin's compress.

"Does it really work?" the latter asked.

"You tell me."

"I don't feel like I'm burning anymore. But I don't understand how it went away so easily."

"There's a lot of theory behind it. Four large, very old botanic books. I can explain if you want me to; do you want your head to hurt even more?"

"I'm good," Soobin said, taking a piece of ginger between his fingers. He was speaking faintly, either due to drowsiness or the desire not to disturb Mrs Cow. "There's so much plants can do, you wouldn't believe it."

Taehyun laughed. "Sounds like something I'd say." He turned a chair around to sit on it, facing Soobin. "So you come from the stars?"

"Pretty much. I carry them around too."

Taehyun nodded pensively. "And what are you doing on Earth?"

"I live here," Soobin responded naturally. He pondered for a few seconds, then continued: "There's a lot of beauty in darkness and cold. But there's loneliness too. And there's only so much someone can handle. Even stars group up in constellations. So I know where my home truly is."

Taehyun listened intently. "You can eat that, it's not poisoned."

"It's ginger. It's very spicy."

"Don't know what kind of ginger you've eaten, but this one is amazing. It'll do you good, I promise."

Soobin eventually squeezed his eyes shut and put the ginger cube in his mouth. He kept a light grimace while chewing.

"Yes, good, Mrs Cow. Take deep breaths and push."

The two boys turned their heads towards Yeonjun, decided it was a situation that deserved privacy, and returned to their conversation.

"Is this your house?" Soobin asked, surveying the room with his eyes.

"House, no. But it's the place I spend most of my time in. Animals come in and I make them tea, drinks, give them food. Or rather, treats. If they make them happy, then I'm happy too. My father set up this place and eventually passed it over to me. He's retired now." He paused for a moment. "Does this place look like it can be lived in?"

"It's larger than my house, for a start. Though I'm not the one to need much."

Taehyun was making some loose connections in his mind. "Was it you who asked for Yeonjun's help this morning?"

Soobin's eyebrows raised, slipping under the compress. "What? What do you know?"

"What do I know?"

That was Soobin's call to backtrack. But he didn't. "I, well... We—"

"I can see the hooves! Keep pushing!"

Soobin lowered his voice to a whisper. "We talked last night and he told me he does deliveries as a day job. That made me curious. I sent a messenger pigeon to find someone to bring me a basket of eggs that I forgot in the toymaker's house, and in less than two hours Yeonjun was at my door, with that exact basket."

"Last night, when you were hanging from the moon?"

Soobin snorted, his unease from earlier vanishing. "Sounds like he talked about me a lot."

"Don't flatter yourself," Taehyun said, smiling teasingly. "He just said you're weird."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. You're both weird, after all."

"I'm gonna tear the membrane so that the baby can breathe, okay? Keep pushing, you're doing great."

Taehyun spared a look at Mrs Cow's face because he couldn't bring himself to look lower. Her eyes were watery and she was breathing hard; not something he didn't expect to see. He thought of how behind every soul there is a mother's suffering, a mother's will to offer her life completely for another. In theory, that was how it worked. But he had never met his mother to learn it sooner.

"Honestly, I feel even healthier right now than I did this morning," Soobin remarked. "I feel like you've put a spell on me."

"Maybe figuratively, because I've never learnt an ounce of magic," Taehyun specified. "If you want to see magic, look over there."

Yeonjun was holding the calf lightly as the last bit of its body exited its mother's womb, followed by a gush of amniotic fluid. The blankets and the towels laid down on the floor were a mess, but the baby was alive and breathing.

"Let me help," Taehyun said, deciding that his standing on the sidelines prolonged too much. "Let's clean the baby."

They cleaned the calf's head and its shiny fur under Mrs Cow's watchful eyes. She used her mouth to lick off remnants of fluid that the boys couldn't rub out. Yeonjun congratulated her on birthing a beautiful baby boy ("Not the delivery I expected to make today", he mentioned), and Taehyun congratulated him in turn. He thought he could thank Soobin for providing this unhoped-for help by falling sick, but decided against it. He was thankful that everyone in the room was in good health now.

The boy in question was right next to them on the floor, cleaning the residue on the wood with a handful of paper towels. Taehyun hadn't even heard him get up or walk in their direction. Was stealth a requirement for his duty? There were a number of things he discovered he would've liked to find out about Soobin, but Taehyun was starting to consider him a mystery that was better left unelucidated.

"Hold on," Soobin said, leaning over. "Keep his head just like that for a moment."

He reached into the pocket of his shirt and pulled out a pinprick-sized light on a fingertip. He pressed it to the calf's forehead, making the white marking on his fur glow for a second before becoming a jagged circle, much like the sun kindergartners draw.

"That was a dying star," Soobin explained. "Normally, I would've kept putting it on the sky until its light went out. But they can live on in new-born terrestrial beings, so I didn't want to miss the opportunity. The baby will continue to carry it."

Yeonjun's eyes were large and wonderstruck, not unlike Taehyun's. Even Mrs Cow seemed bewildered—or rather, confused—by what had just transpired.

"Does this give the baby superpowers?" Yeonjun asked.

"No, I don't think so," Soobin smiled, amused. "It's just a way to create a bridge between Cosmos and Earth. Maybe he will live longer, or maybe he will see more meteor showers than any other cow ever. I don't know the phenomenon that well myself. But the sky will always be thankful to him for giving one of its children a chance to shine on."

About quarter an hour later, when both Mrs Cow and her son were able to walk on their own legs, Taehyun's guests were ready to leave. Soobin and Yeonjun bowed in front of him, thanking him for everything he had helped them with.

"No, don't do that," Taehyun said, genuinely embarrassed, but bowed in response. "I am the one who should be grateful to you. It was a fortunate path crossing, I guess." The three knocked heads when they returned to a vertical position. "So... What name should the baby have?"

"I think Yeonjun would be a good one," Soobin opined.

"Oh, that's not bad! I can get behind this," Taehyun said.

"_No_," the owner of the name intervened. "It has to be Mrs Cow's decision! We should ask her before anything."

Mrs Cow agreed with Soobin and Taehyun, so the name stuck.

***

"Would you like to see the stars, Yeonjun?" Soobin asked when they were both outside. "Up close."

Yeonjun rolled back the sleeves of his shirt, eyes narrowed in thought. "I'm not sure what you mean. I do like stargazing, but..."

"Great. Then just stay outside after the sun sets. I'll reach you wherever you are."

Yeonjun still didn't entirely comprehend Soobin's intentions, but there was a noticeable, contagious excitement in his voice that made Yeonjun willing to let himself be swayed.

***

Sunset found Yeonjun lying down in the short grass of the Rocky Meadow, the straw he was chewing on drawing circles in the air. His muscles ached after an entire day's effort and his head was heavy against the cool soil. It was tempting, so tempting to close his eyes and drift off to sleep with only the night air as a cover and the sky as a ceiling, just like he often did before grabbing his basket of dew early in the morning.

He had been waiting for a while. He didn't know how long—when he saw the sun starting to sink below the horizon, he simply stopped in his tracks and lay down. Soobin had told him he would find him wherever, so Yeonjun had no reason to make his job easier. He was curious if Soobin could truly support the weight of his promise.

Thinking about it, why had he been so adamant to show Yeonjun the stars himself? Was he talking about the starry sky which Yeonjun had seen almost every night of his life or was it something Yeonjun couldn't wrap his mind around? He hadn't intended to make Soobin the object of his ruminations, but it was almost beyond his control. Ever since their encounter by the moon, he seeped into the veins of his mind like a drop of quicksilver, slowly spreading and contaminating his thoughts. He had tried to push this new, inadvertent fixation to the side; and when he couldn't, he decided to indulge in the mystery and let time unravel all the answers.

"Here you are. Not that hard to spot from above, but you'd be surprised how much you resemble the rocks around from up there," a familiar voice sounded.

Yeonjun was midway through closing his eyes and actually falling asleep, but something _had_ to perturb his visual field. "Up there? The moon? It's still there?"

Soobin smirked and offered him a hand. "Why don't you find out yourself?"

Yeonjun hesitated, but every cell in his body screamed at him to grab that hand, give in, take the leap. So he did.

And the world around started warping, landscapes melting away and exploding in hues of inky blue. He bolted upright, as if pulled by magnetic vectors, and when he looked at his feet he saw an immensity of darkness, impossible to appreciate by depth or distance. Above him, the earth, just like he had always known it, its colours dim like a distant memory.

"Don't let go of my hand," Soobin said, with all the calm and warmth of a monk. "And don't be scared. You're safe with me."

If there were any words that hadn't lodged in his throat, Yeonjun needed them now. He felt the urge to speak, to shout, to regain the numerous breaths he had lost and left a clew of fear in his lungs. For a lack of an appropriate reaction, he clasped Soobin's hand with both of his and held on tight. He was up in the sky, far away from anything tangible, with only Soobin as an anchor. Yeonjun thought he well and truly was nearing death.

"I won't let you drop from here," Soobin reassured him, tightening the already painful grip on his hand. "It was me who invited you after all, right? Let's try and take a step."

Yeonjun looked down once more and was met with the same tenebrous infinity that had knocked the air out of his lungs less than a minute ago. It hadn't become any more welcoming. But when he saw Soobin move a leg forward, stepping as though there was solid earth below them, he took a shaky step as well, pushed forward by some sort of automatism. The sensation was more than odd: he felt like there _was_ a surface beneath his feet, and nothing at all at the same time. Quite like moving through water while simultaneously floating and touching the sand.

He was so focused on putting one leg in front of the other and fighting away the constant feeling of being about to fall that he didn't notice it from the beginning. The faint light infiltrating through the edge of his vision. Constellations blooming, close and worlds away, familiar and never seen before. Stars springing from Soobin's unoccupied hand, thrown gracefully by fluid, elegant finger movements, and sticking to the sky much like...

Much like dewdrops on leaves.

"This one is my favourite," Soobin said, presenting Yeonjun a glowing orb in the palm of his hand. "People call it Sirius. It's the brightest star you can see on the night sky from Earth."

He closed his hand, and with a flick of the wrist, the light was gone, possibly slotting itself into its position somewhere Yeonjun couldn't see.

"And this one," Soobin continued, showing him another light, "is Polaris. You might have heard of both. Polaris has often been used by navigators and travellers as a landmark. Or... 'skymark', I suppose." He brought the hand to his lips. "Now follow its course."

With a soft blow of air from Soobin's mouth, the star left his palm and began circling through space, trajectory undulating and speed oscillating as if looking for stability. Eventually, the tiny light steadily gravitated towards a spot within a recognisable configuration of stars, freezing into place.

"That's the Little Dipper," Yeonjun remarked, somewhat taken aback by the rediscovery of his own voice.

"Exactly. Ursa Minor."

Yeonjun let his eyes roam around, trying to take in the entire view and becoming increasingly aware of the impossibility of it. New stars were appearing in less than an eyeblink, chains and clouds of punctiform lights extending beyond the seen universe. Every patch of sky became increasingly complex when zoomed in on, every seemingly simple surface turning out to be just as agglomerated with stars as the larger ones. "Fractals," Yeonjun thought, without knowing how the word came to him, surging from the depths of his mind.

What surprised him more was how quickly he had gotten accustomed to walking on the night sky. It was as though the axis of his world had always been reversed, the sky below and the earth and its mundanity above. He felt invincible. He felt insignificant. He felt at home.

He squeezed the hand he was holding, his lifeline in that moment, the one thing that assured him everything was real, and looked at Soobin's face, at the ocean of lights reflected into his dark but kind eyes. Everything was real.

"Do you still feel like you're falling?" Soobin asked, thousands of lights slipping through his fingers like sand.

"No," Yeonjun said, though it was a bit of a lie. "Not at all."

***

Yeonjun didn't sprinkle dew the following morning. Well, the more appropriate word would be "couldn't". The high temperature and the lack of humidity in the air rendered him unable to. It wasn't the first time it happened that summer, and if Yeonjun were to trust his sixth sense, it was far from the last.

And for a reason he was still trying to figure out, he was crouching on a stump in Soobin's backyard, looking over his vegetable garden. From a plant lover's point of view, and possibly from a gardener's too, things weren't looking encouraging. It was obvious Soobin hadn't given up and tried his best, but the poor plants still donned dehydrated leaves and fruit which were disarmingly undeveloped for their time. Yeonjun reckoned that the lack of precipitation must have negated Soobin's efforts—and not only that. He scooped a fistful of soil and his suspicions were confirmed: it was hardly a fertile kind, and the fact that it was so dry only added to the problem.

He eyed his basket of dew.

He shouldn't.

But he had had a whole night to make up his mind.

So he gathered some water in his palms and threw it onto the plants. It divided itself into many droplets once it made contact with the leaves, which were then absorbed into the cells as swiftly as they had appeared.

Just according to plan.

He almost didn't see Soobin when he opened the door to his backyard, but he definitely heard him when he fell on his back, seemingly not quite ready for the uninvited guest.

"Yeonjun!" he called from the floor.

"Morning." He hopped down from the stub. "Welcome to Earth."

He offered Soobin a hand to lift him up, but the boy quickly returned on two legs, grabbing Yeonjun by the shoulders.

"Yeonjun, have you seen the moon today?"

Yeonjun looked up at the sky once more for good measure. "Yes, I still see it."

"I think I felt it move today."

Yeonjun adopted a fascinated look. "It did? How?"

"When I was gathering the stars a few minutes ago I mistakenly took hold of it, and it wobbled in place. Kind of like a falling tooth."

"I see..."

"I couldn't try further because it was close to sunrise, but I think I'm on the right path. It might actually come off soon!"

Yeonjun noticed it again. That contagious excitement. A child learning how to ride a bicycle. A dog frolicking in the water. A starboy impatiently waiting to show off his creation. It shone like varnish in Soobin's voice. He wanted to hear more of it, he wanted to hear it more often coming from such a seemingly restrained person.

"Best of luck with that. I'm sure you'll succeed if you keep at it."

Soobin opened his mouth to say something, but Yeonjun spoke faster: "How do you like your eggs in the morning?"

"What? Why are you asking?" It was entertaining, seeing his expression morph into confusion so rapidly.

"So we could have breakfast together! A long day awaits us," Yeonjun said. "Fried? Boiled? Chocolate?"

Soobin stared at him, hands still on his shoulders. "Boiled. But," he raised a finger, "I'm gonna be the one to prepare them. You're the guest."

"You never even invited me. I just came here to ask for my blanket."

"Doesn't change the fact that right now you're the guest and you're in my house. Sit down and let me be a good host."

So Yeonjun sat down and let him be a good host. He watched him fidget with the eggs, the pot, the water, his hands sometimes trembling as if he had to impress the world's meanest egg critic. He periodically shifted his attention from Soobin to the room he found himself in, admiringly feng shui for such a small, charmingly cluttered place. He eyed a glass jar of chocolate cookies, a toy soldier, and a large marble necklace among the less typical objects. There was also his blanket, lying in pristine condition in the very basket it arrived in. Not much time passed before the eggs were ready, boiled and kept in cold water to cool down.

Yeonjun sat up when Soobin started removing the shell and walked over to the counter. "That is not how you peel an egg," he informed Soobin, who was clumsily breaking off small pieces. "Watch this."

He took an egg between his hands and started rubbing it with vigour, successfully crushing it and leaking a mess of white and yellow on the workspace.

"This is soft boiled," Yeonjun observed, with defeat in his voice. "You betrayed my trust."

"You betrayed my egg!"

"This method works," Yeonjun defended himself. "But not on softer eggs. I sacrificed my breakfast for this," he complained.

Soobin followed Yeonjun's actions, wordlessly taking an egg between his hands and rubbing it until the entire shell peeled off perfectly. He presented it to Yeonjun, placing it right on the pool of egg yellow in front of him. Yeonjun fixed it with a cold look, which he offered Soobin as well.

"I'm never talking to you again."

But they did talk again after eating, and it was Yeonjun himself who initiated the conversation.

"You know, I too have some stars I want to show you," he said when they were standing on the porch. "They're probably not as great as yours, but I think you'll like them."

"Stars, you say," Soobin smiled playfully. "That's definitely the way to my heart."

"Okay," Yeonjun said, fighting off a wave of warmth. "Then see you at midnight, in the same place we met yesterday."

"Midnight?"

"I'm not throwing you to the wolves, don't worry. But that's the best time."

"I love surprises." Soobin leaned against the door frame. "Then it's set. Can't wait to see you again!"

Yeonjun didn't forget his basket of dew that morning, but he did leave his blanket behind for a second time.

***

He should've expected, of course, that Soobin would appear once again out of the blue, like he was made of shadows. Yeonjun looked behind for what must have been less than a second, and when he turned his head Soobin was there, mirroring his sitting position in the grass.

"It's midnight," he said. "I'm a punctual man."

"Good for you," Yeonjun replied and bent forward to lightly push at Soobin's forehead. It wasn't much pressure, but his back hit the ground the next second. "Let's go. Follow me."

When they were both standing, Soobin asked him: "Do I have to hold your hand too?"

"We don't," Yeonjun said, infinitely grateful that the darkness was covering whatever colour his cheeks were displaying, "have to hold hands. Only if you want to."

They eventually held hands. Soobin raised his experimentally, and Yeonjun grabbed it without much hesitation, lesson learned from the inner voice of yesterday. That was how they walked through the thick forest Yeonjun guided Soobin through ("I'm starting to think you _are_ going to throw me to the wolves," to which Yeonjun replied, "Louder, they can't hear you"), and how they lied down in the clearing that represented their destination. The very familiar night sky stretched above them, tall firs jabbing into it from the sides.

"I know these stars, Yeonjun. I just put them up there."

"You think I don't KNOW?" Yeonjun said, kneeing his thigh. "I brought you here for the nature."

Soobin was silent for a few seconds in which he scanned the surroundings. "It really is beautiful out here," he said. "The air is so clean."

"Can't argue with that. But, that's not the nature I was talking about. Just wait and keep quiet."

Soobin squeezed his hand as an answer.

***

Time flowed slowly before something moved. It could have been two minutes, it could have been half an hour—the night was shrouding the sense of time passing as much as it obscured the surrounding space. The boys exchanged no more words, choosing to wait and let the world spin. That was until the first light flew above them, making Soobin exclaim in realisation:

"A firefly!"

As if they heard themselves being called, the rest of the fireflies in the swarm gradually gathered above and around them in a cloud of light, moving within the space in a beautiful and appropriately chaotic Brownian motion. It was the night sky, shaken up, concentrated, and brought at a human's height. In the deep blue of the night, it looked like it could total a sun.

"I come here every week to see them," Yeonjun whispered to Soobin, whose mouth had been agape since the first insect buzzed towards them. "I have no idea why they do this, not even Taehyun knows, but it's like a ritual. They fly above the ground for a few minutes and then they dart away, turning off their lights. They always gather in this clearing."

Soobin was admiring the display like a child watching the first snowflakes fall. "It's wonderful," he said, eyes twinkling. "It's like magic."

Yeonjun snickered. "Funny you say that, given that you—unlike the fireflies—are able to do magic."

"Maybe to you it's magic," Soobin said, his tone a shade more serious, "but to me it's the most ordinary thing. It's routine. And I know the outer space like the back of my hand. But every new thing I see on Earth is magic to me."

Yeonjun hummed, losing himself in his words. He brought their intertwined hands to his chest. "They look like shooting stars when you squint."

"They do," Soobin said, inching closer. "Though just so you know, shooting stars aren't actual stars."

A string snapped inside Yeonjun's mind. "They're not?!"

"What we describe as a 'shooting star' is a meteor. The meteoroid is what causes the light, and the meteorite is the rock devoid of the fire that has crashed on Earth."

Yeonjun listened to him carefully, both fascinated and frustrated. "I really want to erase this from my mind. It clashes with so many things I know."

A firefly stopped right on Soobin's nose, then descended on his cheek. It was still shining brightly, making the details of his face visible like in broad daylight. Soobin didn't dare move.

"It's good that the fireflies like you," Yeonjun said, using the firefly as an excuse to stare at Soobin's face.

"It could be worse, I guess." His eyes looked as though they were ready to roll out of their sockets with how much strain he put on them to watch the insect.

"It's gonna be useful for catching them in a jar." A pause, then: "Don't give me that look, it wasn't my idea. Mr Groundhog needs something to light up his tunnel with."

***

Yeonjun knew that there was a line he was crossing. Dew water should only ever be used for its intended purpose. The nature's voice, deeply ingrained within him, always pushed him towards preserving the equilibrium and the natural order of everything. It is why he couldn't help feeling scolded by a power beyond his understanding when he watered Soobin's garden with his dew for a second morning in a row.

The persistent heatwave didn't allow him to accomplish his task anyway.

It felt wrong. Instinctively. But it also felt greatly satisfying seeing the vegetables slowly coming back to life and regaining a healthy shade of green.

He left without waiting for Soobin to spot him.

***

The next time they met, Yeonjun was taking an afternoon nap in the oak he usually rested in after sprinkling dew. He thought it was only natural they'd meet in the Rocky Meadow for a third time. Soobin called out from the ground.

"Yeonjun! So good to see you!"

"'m sleeping," Yeonjun mumbled, but failed to keep a smile from appearing on his lips.

Soobin climbed up the tree with surprising agility and sat down at the branch collar. Yeonjun was lying down, hands at the back of his head, one leg hanging off the branch.

"Here with good news?" Yeonjun asked groggily.

"Yes!" Soobin's eyes lit up. "I mean, not the news you might expect. Do you remember when I told you about my vegetable garden?"

"The one that refused to grow?"

"Yup. I haven't even watered it a lot lately but it's all healthy now! Look."

He took out a tiny tomato from the pocket of his shirt and placed it on Yeonjun's chest. He looked at it without raising his head. It wasn't the most impressive tomato, but it was satisfyingly red and matured. His dew was more potent than he had thought.

"You can keep it," Soobin told him.

"I will," Yeonjun replied and popped the fruit into his mouth. It was flavourful and juicy like all good tomatoes. Maybe absurdly so for such a small one.

"I don't get this at all," Soobin said with a sigh. "How the garden is thriving in spite of all these unusual temperatures. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a gardener if I can't understand it."

"Gardening is no science. Plants are very unpredictable. They only act the way you expect them to when they're dead and dried. That's why Taehyun loves tea."

They fell into a comfortable silence, only the occasional bird calls and the wind through the leaves providing a soundscape. The shade of the tree mellowed the heat to a pleasant warmth, perfect for inducing sleep.

"Tell me about your day," Soobin eventually said.

"My day?" Yeonjun had his eyes closed, as though he was attempting to nap and dialogue at the same time. "Mr Groundhog was happy with the five fireflies in a jar and promised to release them as soon as the work was done. Mrs Bear had a black and white friend over from somewhere far away and I delivered her a present. And that was all I had to do today."

Soobin nodded, watching him with a smile. Yeonjun raised his head a few centimetres.

"Wouldn't you rather sleep?" When Soobin didn't answer, he said: "Come here."

Soobin considered for a few moments, then advanced towards the tip of the branch, lying down over Yeonjun, head on his chest. Yeonjun brought a hand to his hair and started stroking it. With the gentle wind in their ears and the rich crown of the oak providing cover, they fell asleep.

***

Yeonjun kept watering Soobin's garden every morning, only taking a few seconds while he knew Soobin was busy gathering the stars. The latter kept bringing him the vegetables that grew. It was a fulfilling, albeit abnormal symbiosis that they had.

There was a catch to using dew against nature's will, Yeonjun discovered. While all the water he had been sprinkling before the heatwave filled back, the water he used for Soobin's garden never reappeared.

***

They climbed the Sun Peak on a rare day when Yeonjun had nothing to deliver. The slope revealed itself clear and slight as they walked out of the forest, so they raced to the top. Yeonjun was sweaty and breathing heavily when he set foot on the patch of barren ground that marked the highest point, but Soobin hugged him anyway, laughing heartily. He stayed in his arms like that, swaying with leftover adrenaline, and threw his head backwards to lay it on Soobin's shoulder.

"I can see the moon," Yeonjun remarked, which prompted Soobin to look up at the sky. It was indeed there, silhouette well-defined even on the afternoon sky. "It's as pretty as ever."

Soobin sighed. "Is that so?" His arms around Yeonjun's waist pulled him closer. "Then one day I'll bring it down to you."

"Or you can just leave it there. That's not gonna make me like you any more," Yeonjun said and wished the ground would open up and swallow him already.

"But there's a chance, right?" Soobin pressed his cheek to Yeonjun's. "Then I don't want to waste it."

***

He had hoped until the last moment, but deep down he had always known that he was asking for derogation from an insurmountable force.

It had been weeks since the air temperature dropped low enough for dew to appear. Now he watched the last water drops from his basket seep into Soobin's plants. His efforts were enough to keep the garden healthy the whole summer.

The irreversible emptiness of the basket glared at him like an abyss. It reminded him that no anomalies were allowed. His whole duty was to avoid them, to play a part in the perfect design of the universe.

So there was only one decision he could make. He jumped up from the stump in Soobin's garden and over the wooden fence and bolted away for one last time.

***

_Dear Cousin Beomgyu,_

_We need to switch places. Don't ask how, but I've run out of dew. I have to retreat to refill the basket. Please meet me in the Crimson Meadow. I am incredibly sorry for disturbing your season of rest._

_Yours truly,_

_Yeonjun_

He rolled up the letter and placed it in the traveller pigeon's claws. "You'll find him in the Rainbow Plains, most likely sleeping in the largest chestnut tree," he told the bird. "If he doesn't wake up, just throw chestnuts at him."

The pigeon flew away and Yeonjun watched it disappear beyond the hills. "It's what must be done," Yeonjun reminded himself. But his soul had long since gained two deaf ears.

***

The worst part, Yeonjun had no doubt about it, was telling Soobin. He knocked on his door one night after all the stars started shining and gripped the handle of his empty dew basket with both hands in nervous anticipation. When Soobin opened the door, he was wearing his pink blanket over his shoulders. Yeonjun's heart sunk.

"Yeonjun," Soobin beamed at him like his visit was the sole thing he had been waiting for the whole day. "I came home just a few minutes ago. Come in."

"Soobin." He gulped. He couldn't find the power within him to say it, but if he had waited any longer, he would have never managed to. "I'm leaving."

Soobin's expression shifted to something he couldn't recognise, and his knees felt weak. It was an awfully ironic reiteration of their first meeting at Soobin's door, when he also told him he couldn't stay anymore. This time however, there was no way out of it. And the cold that had substituted the earnest light in Soobin's eyes suggested to him that he realised it too, without Yeonjun having to say another word.

"Why?" It was a natural question. Whose fault was that Yeonjun had to move away?

"I've run out of dew," he told Soobin, voice small, and showed him his empty basket. "I have to go somewhere else to gather dew and send someone in my place. It's the only thing that can be done."

And Yeonjun expected various answers to this. "Is there really no other way?" or the delusional "Please don't leave" or the unhoped-for "I'll come with you." What he heard instead was:

"Okay."

Yeonjun shifted from one foot to the other, the paralysing silence gnawing at him. "Okay," he repeated. "So this is it."

"If this is your duty, then I can't stop you." Soobin took one step towards him and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. "But I'll miss you more than anything."

Yeonjun placed his hands on Soobin's back, eyes starting to sting. "Me too."

"We'll meet again, I promise." It almost made Yeonjun laugh. Soobin did have a habit of promising him the moon and the stars.

***

"I hate you for this," Taehyun said the next morning when he announced his departure. "I doubt this was something that was supposed to happen. You must have done _something_." He squeezed Yeonjun's arm painfully. Where did he hold all that power in his skinny body?

"It's... complicated. It's not worth explaining." Yeonjun couldn't tell if Taehyun was actually scolding him or if he was just disappointed by this outcome. "I just wanted to tell you that my cousin from the Rainbow Plains is going to take my place today. Be nice to him and don't give him any thyme tea. Also... I wanted to thank you. For being a good friend. Thank you for everything."

"Ugh," Taehyun said and pulled him into a hug. "Take care. Wherever you go. The animals are gonna feel your absence."

Right when Yeonjun was supposed to leave, Taehyun went into the cafe and hurried outside one minute later, holding something wrapped in a purple cloth.

"The first batch of cookies, just like I promised. Eat them soon or they'll go stale."

"Thanks, buddy. I hope Mr Badger and the others will like them. No, I'm sure of it."

They waved at each other for about one minute before Yeonjun slipped out of sight, turning his head away from the tallest tree in the Purple Plateau.

***

"What _even_ happened that made you lose all the dew?" Beomgyu shouted when he spotted Yeonjun by a maple in the Crimson Meadow.

"Beomgyu, I'm sorry!" Yeonjun ran to him. "I'm so sorry. I'll fix things up as soon as I can. You're not gonna have to do a lot of work, though. It's been ridiculously hot lately."

"That's not exactly good news. I hate heat and I like sprinkling dew. I thought that if I had to come all the way here I would at least have something to keep myself busy with."

"Well, here's a task then: visit the guy who runs a cafe in the Purple Plateau and ask him to tell you about the surroundings. He might help you with a thing or two. His name is Sir Peppermint."

"I'll make sure to do that." He put a hand on Yeonjun's shoulder. "Have a safe trip. It's quite chilly in the Rainbow Plains right now, so don't catch a cold."

"I'm tough as nails, Beomgyu. That won't be a problem."

***

Soobin drank the last bit of tea from a bottle that Taehyun had given him when he had paid him a visit, two days after Yeonjun had said goodbye. He found tea brewing a difficult, dilemmatic art—somehow, he always managed to get it wrong. So he was thankful that there was someone like Taehyun who could acquaint him with the mysterious universe of tea.

But as welcoming as Taehyun was, and as safe and cosy as he felt in his little house, his mind couldn't be changed. He locked the outside door, the soft light of the sunset reflecting off the metal of the key and into his eyes. The night was about to fall, which meant that it was his time to move. Through countless constellations, close and far away, over the moon, and to the brightest star on the night sky.

***

The long road allowed Yeonjun to sink into his thoughts and have a talk with his inner self. Each step led him farther away from the place he had been calling home since spring's first buds. Just like the moon hiding its craters in the obscurity of distance, his actions started looking less clear, more reckless and absurd than useful. Two words were ringing continuously and unpleasantly inside his head, like a raven's call: what for? What for?

Was it worth bringing Soobin's garden back to life if it meant losing both him and the precious dew? He hadn't known he would run out of water. He only figured it out when it was too late, well past the point where he wouldn't have had to leave. It was a mistake that hung from his chest like a ball of lead.

Was it worth sticking with Soobin?

Now that was a mistake he could have avoided even more easily.

Yeonjun thought it wasn't entirely his fault. It was Soobin who chose to keep him close. It was him who laid out a spider web for Yeonjun to get trapped in, pulling him closer and closer with each dimpled smile, each witty answer, each star hung on their sky.

But it was Yeonjun's fault to stare right into its grid and still let himself be caught.

And what for? A chain of bad decisions that only ostracised him from the lands he was supposed to offer help to, each memory worsening the hurt? Yeonjun decided that it wasn't right to hold on to a place he was getting farther and farther away from, with no hopes of returning. It was only right to forget. To move on. One step after another, hills climbed and descended, valleys crossed, trees and meadows left behind like they were never his to touch.

***

Three river crossings away from the Rainbow Plains, a deep, cold darkness fell down over the forest Yeonjun was traversing. It was his call to halt his journey and wait for the sun to rise.

For the first time that summer, he felt chills. From the minuscule water drops in the air that that stung his skin like icy salt, from the blowing wind that hit him full-force despite the forest being so dense. No stars could be seen above, which meant clouds had gathered and secluded the sky.

Yeonjun eyed a carpet of moss at the root of a tall beech. He crouched to run a hand through it; it was damp and cold much like the air it was breathing, but it was soft enough for Yeonjun to sleep comfortably on. He dropped his basket and laid his head on the ground, bringing his knees to his chest to preserve heat and have as much of his body lie on the moss and not on the cold soil.

In spite of Yeonjun's efforts, shielding himself from cold proved to be a difficult task. He _used_ to have something to cover himself with, but he supposed he wasn't deserving of it anymore after forgetting about it so many times, then throwing it into the clutches of oblivion along with everything surrounding it.

He was on a steady path to falling asleep when he heard a sharp sound from the tree he was resting under. A leaf fell on his cheek; it was damp and partially eaten by critters, but not ill enough to fall on its own.

Then a deep, soothing voice sounded from above him. "Delivery for Mr Yeonjun."

He looked up so fast he thought he might have popped a vein and saw him. Hanging from a branch upside down like a bat, a dimpled smile on his face that no darkness could conceal.

Yeonjun vaulted up the tree in a few smooth movements and settled on a branch where he could be face to face with Soobin.

"Told you I can reach you wherever you are."

Yeonjun giggled. His cheeks stung the slightest bit from having kept a pensive expression for so long. "Did you come here to bring me back my blanket?"

"No," Soobin answered truthfully and lowered his head to catch Yeonjun's lips with his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Yes, Soobin's explanation about meteors was inspired by Joanna Newsom's lyrics in "Emily". I switched "meteoroid" with "meteorite" to make it scientifically accurate—ironic, in a fic that is anything but)
> 
> Thank you for reading and for the nice comments, I appreciate it so much! And sorry Beomgyu for giving you so few lines! (but you played an important role)  
This fic was partially inspired by a book of animal tales that I received when I was 6. I opened it again to get into the mood and started writing this.
> 
> P.S. Taehyun received a letter from Yeonjun and Soobin two weeks after Yeonjun's departure. He replied to it: "If I was such an impediment to your relationship that you had to go to the other side of the world to confess you should have just told me"


End file.
